﻿Linnaeus brought with him to the Netherlands a large amount of 

 literary material ; the Flora Lapponica, bis Sy sterna, and his Genera 

 were practically ready for publication. His Systevia came out in 

 December, 1735, his Bibliotheca is dated 1736, the Genera was 

 issued early in 1737, and his Flora Lapponica has the preface dated 

 " xii. Kal. Febr. 1737," that is, January 21st, while the Hortus 

 Cliffortianus was also passing through the press. It was quite 

 impossible for Linnaeus to have drawn up all these works in the 

 short time since he arrived in the Netherlands. In his Flora 

 Lapponica, p. 206, he speaks of " planta nostra " which is described 

 on the next page, and he continues, " Characterem huius generis 

 dedit Clariss. Botanicus D. D. Gronovius in Characteribus nostris 

 Genericis § 523, ab omni partem perfectum (qui eanderu ex Alpibus 

 Italicis habuit), cum ista Buxbaumii descriptia minus quadret." In 

 the face of this positive declaration Dr. Kuntze has the hardihood 

 to assert that Gronovius was not the author of the genus ; it is by 

 no means the first time that the doctor has claimed to know more 

 than the author. 



It seems clear that Linnams had not then seen Siegesbeck's 

 Primitias, his own words as printed in his Correspondence being 

 "... I hear that Siegesbeck's Hortus Petropolitanus and Gerber's 

 Flora Moschoviensis are come out, but I am sorry to say that I have 

 never yet seen them.*'— Linnams to Haller, Oct. 8th, 1737. 



By every unbiassed mind these words will be accepted as truth- 

 ful ; but Dr. Kuntze declines to credit them. There are, however, 

 some trifling facts which bear out Linnams's assertions. In his 

 Hortus Gliffortmnus, p. 320, he adds to the synonymy of his Mmm 

 << Obulana . Sieg. Hort.,» this form of abbreviation he seems to 

 have used till about 1745, when in the Flora Suecica, p. 189, he 

 says, « Obolana. Sieg. prim. 79." It will be noticed that Linnaaus 

 made two mistakes in his first citation, mispelling the name, and 

 not knowing the precise title of the work mentioned, this being of 

 course before he saw the book, but so soon as the volume reached 

 his hands, he was enabled to give a true reference. I was probably 

 wrong in supposing that Linnams received all of Siegesbeck's works 

 in January 1738 for as the PrimMa is not specifically mentioned, 

 it may be that it did not then reach him, but if not then, it must 

 have been at some later date, which Dr. Kuntze certainly did not 

 intend to prove. 



Dr. Kuntze devotes the latter part of his note to a reiteration of 

 some of those statements which I have shown already to be untrue. 

 1 do not gather that he includes me in the same class as Linmeus 

 as being unworthy of belief, he must therefore have failed to 

 understand the question, and I will give the substance of my twice 

 printed paragraph in different language. 



The Index Keicensis starts from the time of Linnams, therefore 

 no direct mention is made of earlier authors : Tournefort, Plumier, 

 Vaillant, and many others, are cited only through the works of 

 Linnams or later authors, from 1735 downwards. To me this con- 

 stitutes a very definite starting-point. As the Linnean work is the 

 very foundation of modem botany, it was imperative to take the 



